This post is a recent essay by Eric Levitz, which was published in New York Magazine in October. Here's a link to the original. He explores an issue that has been a major concern of mine in recent years, the role that higher education has had in exacerbating political divisions in the US and elsewhere in … Continue reading Eric Levitz — The Diploma Divide
This is an essay about the historical construction of the American meritocracy, which is to say the new American aristocracy based on academic credentials. Here's a link to the original, which was published 2020 in Bildungsgeschichte: International Journal of the Historiography of Education. An overview of the argument: Modern systems of public schooling have transformed … Continue reading Schooling the Meritocracy: How Schools Came to Democratize Merit, Formalize Achievement, and Naturalize Privilege
This post is a piece from Harvard Magazine about a chronic state of mind that arises among undergrads at elite universities, the Imposter Syndrome. Here's a link to the original. The Imposter Syndrome is a chronic feature of student culture at elite universities. At core, it's the creeping sensation that you're out of your depth, … Continue reading The Truth about the Imposter Syndrome
This classic piece is from The Onion in 2014. Here's a link to the original. Intrepid Middle-Class Parents Embark On Daring Search For Mythical Perfect School District 3/19/14 12:01PM The Lindens believe the school district of lore, which is said to prepare every pupil for college success and boast a state-of-the-art digital media lab, is … Continue reading Intrepid Middle-Class Parents Embark On Daring Search For Mythical Perfect School District
This post is a lovely essay by William Deresiewicz about what he calls "blue state culture." It's published in the current issue of Salmagundi, and it's available without paywall at this link . This issue of the magazine presents a series of responses to a powerful piece by David Brooks last fall in Atlantic, “How … Continue reading William Deresiewicz — On the Smug Dysfunction of the US Meritocracy
This post is an essay by Steven Brint, from the current issue of Chronicle Review, responding to the recent wave of critiques of the American meritocracy. He asks an important question: If we abandon meritocracy in its current form, what should be put in its place? He suggests that selective colleges should stop the current … Continue reading Steven Brint — What Comes After Meritocracy?
This post is an essay by Michael Lind that was published in Tablet in early January. Here's a link to the original. Lind is an astute scholar of the growing divisions in American cultural and political life, and in this essay he unpacks the nature of this divide in a manner I find both original … Continue reading Michael Lind — America’s Asymmetric Civil War
This post is an essay by Blake Smith that first appeared in Tablet. Here's a link to the original. It's about a phenomenon I started noticing a few years ago in the peculiar process of admissions to elite universities. In this process it's not enough to present yourself to the admissions committee as the ultimate … Continue reading Blake Smith — The Woke Meritocracy
This post is a piece I published in 2020 in the Chronicle Review. It’s about an issue that has been gnawing at me for years. How can you justify the existence of institutions of the sort I taught at for the last two decades — rich private research universities? These institutions obviously benefit their students and … Continue reading How NOT to Defend the Private Research University
This post is a tribute to a seminal essay by David Cohen and Barbara Neufeld, which was published in Daedalus in 1981. Here's a link to a PDF of the original. It's a piece of writing that had a major impact on my own work (e.g., here and here) and I have assigned it frequently … Continue reading Cohen and Neufeld: The Failure of High Schools and the Progress of Education
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 